New Grand Theft Auto 5 dissection gets gamers ready for this spring

by snap twig

With today being the first day of 2013, and “GTA V” set to hit stores shelves this spring, here is what people can all expect from “Grand Theft Auto V.”

During November, a series of “GTA V” interviews were conducted, one of which included Rockstar Games cofounder Dan Houser saying he firmly believes the mission variety of “GTA V” won’t be a problem for gamers.

“We’ve focused on variety.

“I don’t think players will say, ‘I’m constantly being told what to do, and I go there, I do it, I leave and I do everything in exactly the same way!’ I definitely don’t think that will be a problem,” Houser said.

He also went on to discuss the innovative new steps and features the game has taken to help gamers acquire a more unique feel to this game.

“It was partly just to do something totally new.

“Partly, too, it was because at that point we were deep into the work on the two DLC episodes of ‘GTA IV,’ and we thought, well, the bits where all the stories crossover is kind of cool, so why don’t we just do that in one game?

“So okay, let’s just do multiple characters. With Michael we wanted this older guy who’s still tough, but he’s retired. That’s a great way to start a game – at the end. That seemed fresh.

“Franklin was the next one we came up with because we wanted a younger character, just so he could be the guy on the up, contrasting with the guy on the down – one could mentor the other.

“And in some ways, I suppose, Franklin is most like your traditional ‘GTA’ protagonist. And then out of nowhere, the idea of Trevor came to us. He is the guy who does everything awful, relentlessly!

“He has his own charm, but he … he’s a relentless maker of mischief. Not without some principles though, but totally different principles to Michael – an exact opposite take on what it means to be a protagonist in a ‘GTA’ world. Michael is more about ego and Trevor is more about id, I suppose,” Houser said.

Houser praised the current consoles and how they have been able to get so much performance out of the nearly a decade old devices.

“At a creative level, which is the most important for us, we could say everything we wanted to say and do everything we wanted to do on these machines.

“We didn’t sit there saying, ‘We’d like to do this in the game, but we can’t.’ There’s plenty of power in these machines,” Houser said.

Finally, he later went on how the new character setup will improve or change the over gameplay experience.

“Once we started playing around with having these three intersecting stories and these three characters, someone on the design team said, ‘We could have them on the same missions and cut between them.’ Brilliant.

“That takes away all the boring bits from the missions. All the bits that feel transitional or slightly ridiculous, in that if you’re the protagonist and I’m your NPC, I can be the best driver in the world, but you’re still driving the car.

“I’m a great gunman, but I hurt my wrist and you have to do the shooting. We have to make sure the player has all the fun. It’s not fun being driven. It’s the most simple and obvious way around that, but you have to figure it out and get the stories working for it to make any sense and have any weight.

“The characters are all there and you join them for a bit and see what they do. Then you cut to someone else. That’s going to feel amazing, unlike anything anyone’s seen before,” Houser said.

Houser discussed what the multiplayer will be like and how money will be used in the game.

“I believe this one will be the best we’ve delivered yet, the most comprehensive package and the best set of things you can do and ways you can organize and try to make it compelling.

“We think there’s something very compelling about open world multiplayer. We believe this is the game with which we will finally convince other people of that, a large number of other people. We just need to get closer before we’re quite ready to show it.

“Money is used as a plot device, and also to help you to get things, and also lots of stuff. One of the criticisms that I thought was valid in ‘GTA IV’ was we didn’t give you enough stuff to spend money on, given all the ways you could raise it.

“We want a lot of toys you can engage with at all points in the story. Using it in all different ways. Having a more vibrant economy and a sense that the reason these people are doing this stuff, at least on some level, is financially driven,” Houser said.